


Son of the Sea

by Gaqalesqua



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Banter, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fantastic Racism, MerMay, MerMay 2020, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24099406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaqalesqua/pseuds/Gaqalesqua
Summary: Called north to help deal with an infestation on the beach, Nora aids something that washes up on the shore.And he's not pleased about that in the slightest.
Relationships: Arthur Maxson/Female Sole Survivor, Arthur Maxson/Sole Survivor
Comments: 30
Kudos: 69





	Son of the Sea

_Holy shit, that is a **lot** of Mirelurks,_ Nora thought as she hunkered down on the rocks overlooking the fishpacking plant. There must have been a good ten or so, and they were swarming the edge of the water, running in and out of it, almost _patrolling_ back and forth. The Nakanos hadn’t been exaggerating when they’d called for her help.

Other than the ‘Lurks, though, the coast looked clear. The water looked undisturbed other than the occasional wave. So Nora had to wonder what was driving all the wildlife out of the sea and onto land…

A large wave abruptly swept in, hit the rocks with a smack and sent salt spray flying into the air. Nora jumped, an arm raising to cover her face. One of the Mirelurks below shrieked in pain, the water dragging it back into the sea. The sun was in her face, reflecting off the water, and Nora couldn’t see what it had gotten caught on. Wherever that swell had come from, it was pulling _hard_ , and soon the crabby arms were disappearing beneath the waves.

A cloud of blood followed it.

_Oh._

Nora paused, and slid her Gauss rifle off her shoulder, peering down into the waves through her scope. Nothing of interest caught her eye, but with the blood filling the water, it wasn’t easy to see much of anything, really.

And she was so busy looking that she missed the next wave that rolled across the sand and hit the rocks, spraying her with saltwater. Spitting it out, she wiped her mouth off. Well, if something was killing off the Mirelurks, she didn’t need to waste ammunition, right?

Something broke the surface and dived back under before she could get a good look at it, the sun’s glare showing her nothing but a grey tail as it disappeared. Was that a whale? One of the ones that washed up half-eaten every so often?

Whatever it was, it was moving _fast_ , already out of sight of her scope, and it might have even been fast enough to generate these waves. Nora kept watching, hoping to see it breach again. She had to jump back to avoid the next wave, and quickly glanced behind her, checking for anything creeping up on her six. Thankfully, she was clear.

When Nora turned around, something popped out of the water.

It was a head. A human head. Not a _floating_ head, like a it was missing from the body. This was a _living_ human whose dark hair rested on the water around them like a halo, which was then followed briefly by a pair of shoulders, then arms that grappled a Mirelurk’s leg as it was pulled back with the swell of the waves.

There was a fucking _guy_ in there?! With the whale and the ‘lurks?! What kind of crazy-

A knife flashed in his hand, burying itself deep in the Mirelurk’s belly. She realised immediately that he was at the perfect angle to deliver a killing blow, and in moments the waving claws had gone limp. He pushed it off and into the water, where clouds of blood turned the water opaque.

“What the hell,” Nora muttered, raising the scope again to look.

He’d gone again, disappearing into the water.

“What the fuck?” Was she hallucinating? Had the water tricked her somehow?

Nora kept her eyes on the surface, brows furrowing as she watched. It was swelling rapidly now, _stormy_ in this one small part of the coast despite the perfect weather and windless conditions all around. She glanced briefly up and down to confirm it. The rough waters were concentrated entirely on this section where the Mirelurks were. A few more disappeared into the sea, and as Nora watched, more blood filled the water. Fuck. It was completely blocking her view of anything.

Well. If she wasn’t going to be able to wait and find out…

Nora brought the scope up and marked a Mirelurk, held the trigger to charge, and let the cartridge fly. It hit a ‘Lurk with a _cracking_ noise and it fell dead. Surprised shrieking filled the air and the Mirelurks turned as she charged up the next cartridge. Another fell, just as the waves washed up again and dragged yet another Mirelurk kicking and screaming into the depths to be obscured by a cloud of its own blood. Nora busied herself taking down what was left on the beach. The water claimed another as Nora shot her third, leaving just two left.

They scuttled in together, and the water churned as they disappeared. Left with the empty beach in front of her, Nora paused, waiting, watching.

Water surged up out of nowhere, crashing against the high rocks. Nora stumbled back to avoid the spray. Mirelurks could be heard scurrying down below as the waves receded. She leaned forward, and there were the two that had just disappeared beneath the water, blood dripping out of them.

And further down, lying on the sand, there was a man.

Not a man.

The torso of a man, and the lower half of a sleek, grey fish. Like the whales that washed up.

The echoing ring of a Mirelurk king filled the air, and Nora staggered from the sound. A cry of pain came from below her, from the man on the beach, and when she looked back he was fending off the Mirelurks, a sword in one hand and a knife in the other. Nora charged up her shot and sent it flying, crippling one of the Mirelurks, charging up, crippling the other, letting the man- not man- shove both blades into them.

Too preoccupied with the two attacking the man, Nora hadn’t noticed the king charging on the beach, and with the man’s bare torso exposed, blades still shoved into the huge crabs, he was vulnerable. Nora was already charging up her rifle when the huge claws scraped over the pale skin, and the man’s roar of pain filled the air.

The king reared back, claws raised. Nora needed to make the shot count, or the man- _he_ would die in front of her.

“HEY!” she yelled.

The fishy head looked up.

Nora fired.

The shot went clean through the creature, and it fell back, dead, its head obliterated. Nora shouldered her gun and scrambled down the rocks towards the man. The _not_ man. She kept using the word man because her brain couldn’t let her fully comprehend what was happening right now.

Lying there in the sand, bleeding fairly human-looking red blood, was a _merman_ , his torso bare apart from some now shredded rope that kept armour fasted around his shoulders. His hair was dark, soaking wet, and as she came closer she could see that he had a beard.

And his lower half wasn’t a _whale_. It was a _shark_.

Nora hurried over to him, watching as he slowly sat up and raised a hand to his chest. She got there in time to see it pull away, soaked in blood that was as red as any human’s. But even as she tossed her bag down and started examining him, she had a feeling that stimpaks of human blood weren’t going to be much help here. Which meant she was going to need to close the wound without them, and probably without stitches too. And that left cauterisation as her only option.

“It’s ok, I’ve got you, I’m gonna fix you up,” she promised.

The man- merman- looked up at her, like he’d only just realised she was even there. His eyes were pale blue, a large scar cutting into the right hand side of his face.

“You,” _fuck_ , his voice was nice, “saved me.”

“Yeah,” she said, digging into her bag for her cauteriser, “but you might not-”

“Why did you _do_ that?!” he snapped.

Nora reared back, halfway to grabbing the instrument. “What?” she asked faintly.

“What do you want?!” the merman demanded.

“I’m trying to _help_ you!” she shot back, pulling the cauteriser out. “If you don’t get that looked at you’re going to bleed out!”

“It will be a warrior’s death,” he snapped, trying to sit up.

Nora instinctively placed a hand on his shoulder, and holy _shit_ , his body felt like velvet-wrapped steel. She pushed, ineffectively. “A warrior’s death? Are you for real? _This_ is how you wanna go when I could save you?”

“You think I’m going to trust the word of a human?” he hissed, pulling away. “I know your tricks. You offer kindness now but you’ll,” he broke off, wincing, “demand a debt later.”

“Do you _want_ to die?!” she yelled. “ _Seriously_. I’m just trying to _help_!”

“I won’t be indebted to a _human_ ,” he protested.

“This isn’t a debt, this is me _being a decent person_!” she told him, pulling out her antiseptic and clean cloth. “Now will you lie down and _let me save you_?!”

“I am a _prince_ and _warrior_ , I don’t need some land-dweller-” He cut himself off with a curse, his teeth bared. “Some _land-dweller_ to help me just because I crossed onto their land.”

Nora had to guess something had stung by the pain that came over his face. “Well then you’re going to bleed to death in front of a _land-dweller_ ,” she retorted. “After a Mirelurk King scratched up your chest a little. And the land-dweller could’ve saved you to get your royal ass back to your kingdom, but no, you’re gonna die instead and the Mirleurks are gonna eat you for lunch because you died on a beach like a _really_ stupid fish. Your choice.”

He was looking strained. The pain must’ve been sinking in now. The pale blue eyes glanced between her and the sea, nothing but frustration on his face.

“Fine,” he gasped out. “But quickly.”

“Would’ve done it by now if you’d let me,” Nora muttered, uncapping her antiseptic and sterilising the cloth. “This is going to hurt.”

“Funny,” he muttered.

Nora pulled out a can of purified water and poured over the gashes, ignoring him as he hissed, and wiped the cloth over them afterwards. A growl vibrated his body, his hands digging into the soft sand. Nora made sure the cuts were clean, and then she grabbed the cauteriser and brought the strap of her satchel over to his mouth.

“Bite on this,” she advised. “This is going to hurt and I don’t think human chems will help you.”

“What’s a chem?” he asked, but he put the leather between his teeth, watching her.

Nora turned the cauteriser on, letting it heat up. The merman’s chest started to rise and fall, his breath getting heavier. The pale eyes flickered anxiously between her, the tool and the sea, like he was thinking of trying to get away. Either he was thinking the sea might heal him, or he was taking his chances on dying on his home turf. Surf. Home surf.

Shaking her head to concentrate on her task, not the strange pun that she had just thought up, Nora checked her tool. It was ready. “Take deep breaths,” she ordered, and pressed it against the wound.

The furious _roar_ of pain that came past the leather was joined by the sound of sand squeaking in protest as he crushed it beneath his hands. His tail tensed, straining, body lifting upwards as he sucked in air. She placed her hand on his shoulder as if to offer some emotional support that he didn’t seem to want, slowly drawing the cauteriser over the first gash. He had a neat row of three on his chest and ribs, and water dripped down off him as he endured the heat, letting her close the first wound. Nora realised he was _sweating_ , and he looked pale, sickly.

Finally, the first gash was done. “It’s ok,” she soothed. “It’s ok.”

“I’m not a fry!” he snarled past the leather. “Water. Seawater. Give it to me.”

“Jesus, you’re a _rude_ bastard,” Nora muttered, but she grabbed the empty water can, leaning over to fill it with seawater.

He snatched it from her, pulling the leather out of his mouth long enough to chug the can, and then he tossed it back to her. “Proceed,” he ordered biting down again, his eyes squeezing shut.

It was the same with the second gash. She could almost _feel_ the ground vibrating beneath him as he shook with the pain, taking heavy breaths that she remembered doing herself when she gave birth to Shaun. The _squeak_ of the sand was hard to ignore and she wondered if he would somehow turn it to glass and leave her to deal with his bleeding hands too. 

The merman downed can of water when the second wound was shut, and then she began sealing the third. He looked sickly, like he was going to pass out from the pain but he held out, letting her burn it shut.

“Seawater,” he rasped again when it was finally done, and this time the can got dumped all over his chest. Still shaking, he sat up, panting. The fact that he just _sat up_ after having a cautery tool pressed against his chest…he obviously hadn’t been lying about being a warrior before, but he’d just taken the pain in his stride. It was _impressive_.

Nora switched her cauteriser off, watching him sit up. His whole body was trembling, flushed with heat from the pain. A mixture of sweat and saltwater ran down his back, and Nora let herself take the sight in.

The grey of his tail extended up the middle of his back, covering his spine, his shoulderblades, running over his shoulders and down the back of his biceps to his elbows, where it grew darker, almost purplish-grey. His hair fell down to around his shoulders, thick and dark and soaking wet, shaved on one side. A myriad of scars covered him, in all shapes and sizes.

“Make your demand,” he said roughly.

Nora looked up from where she had been staring at him. “What?”

“Your demand,” he repeated. “Your price for my life. Name it, and then I can leave.”

Her brow furrowed. “I told you. I did this because it was the right thing to do. There’s no _debt_ here.”

His lip curled. “You’re a liar, human.”

Nora ignored him and moved closer to the water. Setting aside her cauteriser to cool, she reached for the bloodied cloths. If he wasn’t going to believe her, fine. She wasn’t going to stick around much longer, especially if he wasn’t going to thank her without making her sound like some greedy opportunist who jumped at the chance to indebt people to her.

“I said make your demand,” he ordered. “I won’t be held here on your whims.”

“ _I_ said get some rest and then fuck off,” Nora replied, wetting the cloths in the sea.

“You don’t give me orders,” he snapped. “You _will_ tell me what you want as payment.”

“Jesus Christ,” Nora muttered. “I’m not asking for _anything_ , ok? Just get some _rest_ , for fuck’s sake. There shouldn’t be any more Mirelurks but I’ll keep a watch out.”

“You overestimate yourself,” he scoffed.

She picked up the cauteriser and turned around, waving it at him. “I saved your life,” she reminded him. “ _You’re_ the jackass herding Mirelurks onto the land and _beaching himself_ to kill them. Who’s overestimating who here?”

He flinched at the sight of the tool. “What even _is_ that? It looks like an instrument of torture.”

“It’s a cautery gun,” Nora replied. “I made it with some fusion cells and a rigged laser pistol. It gets so hot that it burns the wounds shut.”

“You made a device that kills into something that heals?” he asked.

“You sound so amazed at the idea,” Nora shot back.

“I’ve lived long enough to see what happens when mer get caught by your kind,” he growled. “Don’t mock me, human.”

“Sorry I’m the nicest human you’ve ever met but that doesn’t mean they’re _all_ bad. I know plenty of humans who would have done the same as me,” she snapped.

“You are the _only_ human I have ever met,” the merman told her. “And so far you are turning out to be the most irritating creature in existence, because you _will not tell me your demand_.”

“I don’t have a demand!” Nora yelled. “I don’t want _shit_ from you!”

“I don’t trust that!” he told her, glaring. “I’ve heard too many stories of humans claiming they want nothing and then going back on those promises. I do not _enjoy_ the thought of being at your whims for you to force me to repay what I owe whenever you wish it.”

“Well I’ll make it easier for you,” Nora began packing her things back into her satchel, “I’ll leave you here and go back home and you won’t need to worry about it.”

His hair _shifted_ briefly as he stared up at her, trying to sit up as tall as he could. “I will not repay a debt by being forced to remain at your beck and call,” he warned. “I will not be a plaything!”

“I’m not playing,” Nora said, wrapping the bloodied cloth up tightly and stuffing it into the bag.

“What do you want?” he barked. “Are you going to force me to crawl up the sand with you as you leave? Is that it?”

“No, I’m just _leaving_ ,” Nora assured him, as she shouldered her bag and quickly started to walk up the beach, cautery gun in one hand to let it cool in the damp air.

“You- wait-” A hand snatched at her boot.

Nora tumbled back, landing in the merman’s lap with a grunt, her hat falling off in the collision. The cauteriser flew out of her hand and splashed into the ocean. Dammit. That was definitely going to break it and that was the only one she had of those.

“What the fuck?!” she demanded, rolling off of him onto the sand and reaching for her hat. “What did you do that for?!”

“You are leaving,” he said, like she was stupid, one hand on his chest where the Mirelurk claws had wounded him. “You- _cannot_ leave. There are _laws_. Debts are meant to be repaid no matter how distasteful the repayment may be.”

“Well then change your laws!” Nora barked, setting the hat back on her head and scrambling to her feet. “If it pisses you off that much, change your laws!”

“I demand you give me your request,” the mer snapped.

“My request is that you fuck off!” Nora yelled. “Back to the water. Please _god_.”

The pale blue eyes glittered with fury. “You will not toy with me,” he warned. “I will not return for you to make good on the debt, human. No matter if you change your mind in time.”

“I don’t want to make good on the debt!” Nora groaned. “How many times do I have to tell you that?! Just for fuck’s sake, will you _leave_?!”

Glancing between her and the sea, the merman’s jaw clenched. “You will never see me again,” he told her. “You will tell no one of what happened here. Or you will regret it.” And with that, he rolled over until he hit the water, and pushed himself off into the sea, disappearing in moments.

“What a _dick_ ,” Nora muttered.


End file.
